LICSTER -- A Low-cost ICS Security Testbed for Education and Research

TL;DR

LICSTER is an affordable, open-source ICS testbed designed for education and research, enabling practical hands-on experience in industrial security at a low cost of around 500 Euro.

Contribution

This paper introduces LICSTER, a low-cost, open-source ICS testbed that facilitates research and education without expensive equipment or simulation limitations.

Findings

LICSTER enables practical ICS security experiments.

It costs approximately 500 Euro to build.

The testbed is suitable for educational and research purposes.

Abstract

Unnoticed by most people, Industrial Control Systems (ICSs) control entire productions and critical infrastructures such as water distribution, smart grid and automotive manufacturing. Due to the ongoing digitalization, these systems are becoming more and more connected in order to enable remote control and monitoring. However, this shift bears significant risks, namely a larger attack surface, which can be exploited by attackers. In order to make these systems more secure, it takes research, which is, however, difficult to conduct on productive systems, since these often have to operate twenty-four-seven. Testbeds are mostly very expensive or based on simulation with no real-world physical process. In this paper, we introduce LICSTER, an open-source low-cost ICS testbed, which enables researchers and students to get hands-on experience with industrial security for about 500 Euro. We provide all necessary material to quickly start ICS hacking, with the focus on low-cost and open-source for education and research.